Amateurs
by mywingsaremadeofglass
Summary: He was hoping and praying that SHIELD would get them out. He didn't normally pray.
1. Chapter 1

He leans against the ropes binding him to the chair. "She's not worth anything, she's a new SHIELD agent. I brought her with me because-" _Wham._

His mouth fills with blood and as his vision clears he can see Natasha across the room. She's tied with her arms above her head, her dislocated shoulder hanging at an impossible angle. He's not sure that arm isn't broken, now he thought about it. She's covered in blood- it matches her hair. Or maybe her hair's bloody too. He doesn't know anymore.

The man working on Natasha pulls her drooping head up by the hair. "I think she's worth much more than you say. The famous Hawkeye doesn't run with amateurs. Besides, I recognize this one. The Black Widow. Never thought I'd see you again." Natasha glares at him. "Go to hell." He smiles, and the grin is full of hatred. "I'm sure that the famous Black Widow will be a hard nut to crack. It's a good thing I like a challenge." She continues staring with her trademark Natasha glare, and he withers a little bit, and then realizes she was still chained up. He laughed. "You can do nothing, for all of your bravado. And I have a sneaky suspicion that your friend over there will do anything to save you. So, what'll it be?" He glanced at Clint, and then looked back at Natasha. Clint stared hard at Natasha, who subtly shakes her head.

"No."

"I'm sorry, I don't think I heard that correctly." The man was puffing up, he was sure Clint would tell him everything. "I said no. You don't think I'm hard to crack? Try me."

"Alright. I will." The man dropped Tasha's head and walked to the door. "You can come in now." Another man walked in, this one looking much more sinister. "Hawkeye and Black Widow. What a pleasant surprise. Now, I know your names, you reputation proceeds you I am afraid, but you do not know me. I am Alexander Drakov, and this is my friend, Sergei. " Natasha stiffened noticeably. Drakov noticed too, and his smile grew wider. "Yes, I thought you might remember me, Natalia. We met, once upon a time. But that's all ancient history. We would like some information, and it will be much easier for all parties concerned if you just cooperate."

"Like hell." Natasha was quiet, but the words were spat out with such fury that you couldn't help but hear them. "I was almost hoping you'd say that. I do owe you a fall, my dear." Clint looked back at Natasha, who looked murderous. She was glaring with such intensity at the two men that they stepped back a little. "You owe me a fall, Alexander Drakov? Your daughter was owed a fall. She was the one-" Drakov slapped her. "You will not speak about my daughter like that- you were the cause of her death-" Natasha looked up at him and spit blood from her mouth, hitting him in the face. "You'll pay for that, you little-" Alexander raised a hand to stop Sergei. He used a white handkerchief to clean his face off, it came away red. He turned away from Natasha.

"So, Hawkeye, I was wondering if you wouldn't mind answering a few of my questions? I've seen your partner in action; I know she doesn't crack easily. But you, you are a different story. You would do a lot to protect her." Clint clenched his jaw. "I'm not telling you anything. Pound sand." Natasha grins at him, her teeth stained red. Alexander shrugs, and nods to Sergei. He pulls out a jug of water and forces Natasha's head back, slapping a towel over her nose and mouth. The water begins to pour and Natasha's back arches, instinctively trying to get away from what's drowning her. After about 10 seconds, Sergei stops and lets go of her head. It falls forward as she coughs, spewing water out of her lungs. She coughs for forever, and then takes a deep breath.

"Waterboarding, Sergei?" She gasps, her breath short. "Amateur." Clint laughs out loud at that. Sergei swells up, looking extremely indignant. Clint files away that he's easily insulted. Sergei tries again, poring water over her head, this time for longer. She coughs and flinches away when it's over, but other than that, makes no response. Alexander chuckles. "Sergei, my friend, you'll just have to be creative now, won't you?" Sergei nods, and pulls out a knife.

Two hours later, Natasha is laughing through her screams, telling Sergei over and over again that he's an incompetent interrogator. Her body is bruised and cut and beaten. Clint is sure he heard a few cracks, which means broken bones. They have a running tally of who's broken the most. He used to be ahead. Not anymore, if he counted correctly. Natasha spits more blood out of her mouth and coughs some more. Punctured lung? He's praying that SHIELD gets there soon, that Stark and Steve can get there. Thor isn't on Earth, Banner is off somewhere helping SHIELD with a nuclear problem, but Stark and Steve can come, they can rescue them.

He's just been asked a question. His response is what it has been this whole time: "Screw you." He's been opting for different variations, but he's mostly just praying that they start in on him soon. Anything to get them off Natasha. He's been backhanded and kicked a couple times, but nothing like this systematic sadistic torture. What he's gotten out of Alexander Drakov's words so far is that his daughter was running a terrorist network along with him, and that someone had taken out a contract on her to get back at him. Natasha had filled the contract before she worked for SHIELD. Clint got the gist. This wasn't just because they were both terrorist's dreams, not that Natasha had dirt on every single government in the world, oh no. For Alexander Drakov, this was very personal.

After another three hours, Natasha isn't laughing. She's mostly unconscious, her blood pooling on the floor. Clint assumes she's too dehydrated or has lost too much blood to form proper words, because her insults were slurred, her words choppy and unrecognizable. He'd broken a while ago, done with the torture and watching her suffer. He'd offered to tell them anything they wanted, screamed at Natasha to crack and spill the secrets only she knew. She had shaken her head at him, told him not to talk, and so he'd shut up. If he could do nothing less, he was going to listen to his partner. Especially if this was her last request.

It was another hour of this. At least half of that time was focused on him; Natasha was too out of it for them to get anything from her. She was floating from conscious to unconscious, and unconsciousness hurt a lot less. Clint yelled as they worked on him, but he remained with his earlier conviction of 'Screw you', which didn't go over very well. After the second 'fuck off' there were gunshots from outside. Drakov motions to Sergei to go check it out, giving Clint a respite.

"So Hawkeye, you get a break. Your girlfriend didn't quite live up to her reputation…the famous Black Widow. I'd be surprised if she doesn't crack soon." Clint says nothing, breathing heavily through the pain. He grins at Drakov. "I wonder where your henchmen has gotten to- shouldn't he have been back by now?" Clint was positive by now that it was a recovery team. _Come on guys…hurry up._ Drakov stands, and opens the door.


	2. Chapter 2

He's greeted with a face full of Steve's shield. This of course knocks him slightly flat, and Steve and Tony to rush in, flanked by two Shield agents. "You two took your goddamn time." Steve grins. "Couldn't let you two marinate any longer, apparently you are too…what was it Fury said?"

"Emotionally compromised in a precarious situation." Tony put in, as he knocks out Drakov. Steve walks over and begins undoing Clint's bindings. "Stark- get Natasha." Tony nods once, and begins undoing the ropes tying her arms above her head. She's half conscious- and once Clint is deemed to be in no mortal danger all of Steve and Tony's energy is focused on her. One of the agents undoes the rest of Clint's ties and then radios for a med team and immediate extraction. Clint listens to Steve and Tony, trying to gauge what's going on.

"Nat- come on, you have to stay awake for me. Natasha. Come on. There you go." That's Steve's voice. He has his hands out as they ease her arms down from where they were tied above her head and it's good because she collapses as soon as her hands are untied. Steve lays her out on the ground and begins trying to do what he can. "Stark- med team on its way?" Tony glances at the agent, who nods. "About 15 minutes out."

"Good. One of you have that first aid kit? We have to stop some of this bleeding." Someone passes it to Tony, who begins unwrapping bandages. They all are reasonably good at patching people up, Steve because of the military, Clint because he's had to patch himself up, and Tony because, well, there isn't much Tony Stark can't figure out.

"Romanov!" That's Tony's voice. "Hey Spidey, you have to stay awake. Shit- her shoulder's dislocated. Careful." There a mumble that Clint can't really grasp. "Yeah, Barton's fine- he's over there. Rogers- help me out here-"

"Natasha, Clint's over there okay? You have to stay down, let us do this." Steve is talking her through what he's doing, trying to keep her conscious. "I can't move you if you're bleeding this much, and I don't want to hurt you more, so Stark and I are packing what we can-stay down, Natasha-, and then if we have to, we'll do emergency sutures on some of the bad ones, okay? Natasha- look at me. There you go." He's remarkably calm; Clint assumes he must have dealt with some casualties before. "Natasha! Stay still. Barton is perfectly fine. Barton- get over here." Clint stands up and Steve plants him by her head. "Keep her awake."

"Hey Natasha." Her eyes are unfocused; she's drifting into a haze of pain and unconsciousness. "No- you have stay with me. You're going to be fine. What's your favorite color?"

"Green." Her words are slurred, but still audible.

"How many tattoos do you have?"

"Two…" He glances at Steve. Steve nods. "I've got her. Nat, you're going to hate me in a second, just brace yourself." He picks her up and she gasps with pain. "I know it hurts, just stay with us, okay?" He turns to Stark and the agents as he runs. "Cover us." There doesn't seem to be much to cover, most of the terrorists Clint can see are dead. Steve is still talking to Natasha. "So, you just had to show Barton up on that whole 'I've broken more bones than you' tally? You had to be competitive." Her face is white with pain, and Steve smiles at her. "Once we get to the chopper they'll give you something, okay?" She shakes her head. "Don't want to sleep." Steve nods. "Okay." He doesn't want to argue.

They get to the assigned pick up zone, and they can see the chopper. "She's still bleeding badly." Stark. "They've got transfusions on the chopper, they should be able to handle that. The closest SHIELD hospital is in Vienna- that's 2 hours away. Do we try and stich her up now?" "No, they'll do that." Natasha's eyes are drifting closed and Steve shakes her a little. "Natasha. Stay awake. You are not allowed to pass out on me. I am the supposed leader of this godforsaken group, and you are not passing out." Steve curses as the chopper lands in front of him. They've taken her out of his arms before anyone can blink, and they are shouting commands to each other and motioning for Clint and Steve to get on the plane, and for the agents to wait for another pick up.

The med people start strapping her to a backboard and that's when she starts to freak. Someone places an oxygen mask over her face and she fights it, thrashing against the straps. Hands immediately move to hold her still and Clint moves. "She was water boarded- don't force the mask!" The med team backs off, someone pulls it off and hands it to Clint. "Get her comfortable with it, she needs to have it on." He sits by her head, places the mask near his own mouth and nose. "Just air, Tasha. That's all it is. Okay?" She nods a little, and he holds it near her face for a few minutes. "Can I put it all the way on now?" Another small nod, and he holds it to her face.

Someone does something near her chest and she flinches. The medic who was working glances at her, and then calls out, "Someone push some midazolam and some morphine-" Natasha shakes her head and tries to speak. Clint rubs the hand not attached to an IV. "Shhhhh, you're fine. It'll just make it hurt less. You won't be asleep, it'll just make it a little more numb." The medic looks at him like he's insane and starts to say something, but then catches his drift. "Agent Romanov, it won't be easy to treat you if you're in the amount of pain you are currently. We need to put in a chest tube and we normally sedate for that. We'll only push a little bit, just enough to take the edge off." They're both flat out lying, but at this point Clint doesn't care. Knock her out, do something. The nurse takes advantage of the opportunity to draw up a syringe and inject it into Natasha's IV line. "That was the midazolam. I'm pushing the morphine now." Natasha relaxes after a second and then her eyes drift shut. The medic smiles at Clint over Natasha's head and then turns back to the rest of the team. "She's out, people. Are we placing that tube or not?"

Clint moves back to where Steve is sitting. They're both covered in Natasha's blood. "What happened?" Clint shakes his head. "We were made- 12 hours into the mission. They knocked us both out, woke up in a basement cuffed to a chair. The man behind it- Drakov- I guess Tasha had a contract on his daughter before she joined SHIELD. That's why he worked on her- didn't figure she'd crack easy but I think he wanted the satisfaction." Steve nods. "Are you alright?" Clint forgot in the moment that he was bloody too. "Yeah. Took them a while and then they started on me." Steve grabs a spare med kit and begins bandaging the cuts that are still bleeding sluggishly. "I'm sorry we couldn't get there sooner. It took Fury a while to convince the council to send us in- they wanted to wait 48 hours. Did they want you to talk?" Clint nods. "How long did they work on her?" He shakes his head. "I don't know. 5 hours?" Steve nods, not saying anything. He reaches out for Clint's bleeding arm, and Clint grabs Steve's hand, offers up a half smile. "Thank you for coming."


End file.
